Sunday, July 31, 2011

Four Letter Words: Book

Give me a good book to read and I'll stay out of your way till I finish reading it.

As a young child, the bookstore was THE place to go for me. While dolls and little porcelain tea sets caught my eye, books really made me go crazy. I remember wandering along the aisles, gazing up at the shiny hardbound covers wondering what kind of world I would step into once I opened them. At 11, I read Alice in Wonderland three times while I lay in bed in the hospital after an operation for a ruptured appendix. I carried a dog-eared copy of To Kill a Mockingbird in my school bag when I was 13 - and pretended it was the first time I read it in my senior year in high school when it was given as assigned reading. My all-time favorite childhood Christmas gift was from an aunt -- two thick volumes of ghost stories that were read from cover to cover numerous times and which I handed down to my daughter who seems to have inherited my love for the written word. And when I have money to spend, I never end up buying that lovely dress I had been eyeing for weeks -- I always seem to end up buying a good, fat, book.

Writing is also something I enjoy so I have in my possession all manner of blank journals and notebooks - some have entries in them, others have my sketches. The handmade ones are my favorite, especially the leather bound ones. So it was no surprise to me when I hooked up with two handmade book makers at the last art fair I was in. Seeing their work inspired me to make my own little versions of handmade books - the kind I can wear.

This one was made from leather which I distressed myself by giving it a few swipes with some sandpaper and rubbing in some dark brown acrylic paint. I cut up a few pages of an old book and attached them to make little pages by sewing them into the spine with a dark brown leather cord. The same cord was cut long enough so that you could wrap it around the book and tie it up in front. Of course, I couldn't leave out the beads so a delicate dangle of tiny, tiny, round jasper beads and gold stone beads were strung together and attached to the spine where the cord peeked through. Here is another look

I enjoyed making this first little one so much I decided to make another one, this time with some purple suede leather. I distressed it a bit with sandpaper and got the look I was aiming for. What do you think?

This wee one had blank pages in it, cut up from one of my watercolor pads. I thought I wanted one that I could write little things in -- like spells. LOL. The dangles were made of brass spacers, majorica pearls and the tiny round jasper, moonstone and gold stone beads. Like the first one, this little book is attached to an antiqued copper chain.

Of course a book isn't a book if you can't open it, so this one opens up just like the first one -

Two of my favorite things in one --- handmade books and handmade jewelry. Now, I can't wait to wear these babies when I go out.